This invention relates generally to percutaneous electrical therapy systems for medical use. In particular, the invention relates to an electrode remover for removing percutaneously inserted electrodes from a patient""s tissue.
Electrical therapy has long been used in medicine to treat pain and other conditions. For example, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) systems deliver electrical energy through electrode patches placed on the surface of a patient""s skin to treat pain in tissue beneath and around the location of the patches. The efficacy of TENS systems in alleviating pain is questionable at best, however.
More recently, a technique in which electrodes are placed through the patient""s skin into the target tissue has been proposed. Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy (xe2x80x9cPNTxe2x80x9d) (also sometimes called Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or xe2x80x9cPENSxe2x80x9d) using percutaneously placed electrodes achieves significantly better pain relief results than TENS treatments using skin surface electrodes. This therapy is described in Ghoname et al., xe2x80x9cPercutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Low Back Pain,xe2x80x9d JAMA 281:818-23 (1999); Ghoname et al, xe2x80x9cThe Effect of Stimulus Frequency on the Analgesic Response to Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain,xe2x80x9d Anesth. Analg. 88:841-6 (1999); Ahmed et al., xe2x80x9cPercutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS): A Complementary Therapy for the Management of Pain Secondary to Bony Metastasis,xe2x80x9d Clinical Journal of Pain 14:320-3 (1998); and Ahmed et al., xe2x80x9cPercutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation: An Alternative to Antiviral Drugs for Herpes Zoster,xe2x80x9d Anesth. Analg. 87:911-4 (1998). The contents of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
Thus far, PNT practitioners have used percutaneously placed acupuncture needles attached to waveform generators via cables and alligator clips to deliver the therapy to the patient. This arrangement and design of electrodes and generator is far from optimal. For example, removal of percutaneous electrodes has thus far been a cumbersome operation. It has also been dangerous, since the prior art has not addressed the issue of sharps protection for the patients"" caregivers and other bystanders. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a more efficient electrode remover and to reduce the exposure of electrical therapy patients"" caregivers to accidental exposure to bloodborne pathogens, microbes, toxins, etc., via an injury caused by unintended contact with a sharp electrode.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a percutaneous electrical therapy system having electrodes and electrode assemblies that are safe, efficacious, inexpensive and easy to use.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the description of the preferred embodiments.
The invention is a percutaneous electrode remover. In a preferred embodiment, the remover includes a housing adapted to be held in a user""s hand, the housing having an aperture at a distal end; and an actuator operable by a user to move a percutaneously inserted electrode through the aperture and completely into the housing.
In some embodiments, the remover also includes an electrode engager adapted to engage an exposed portion of an electrode upon operation of the actuator.
In some embodiments of the remover, the actuator is further adapted to be operated by a user""s thumb to move the electrode through the aperture.
In some embodiments, the remover also includes a used electrode holder adapted to hold a plurality of electrodes that had been moved into the housing by operation of the actuator.
In some embodiments of the remover, aperture is adapted to cooperate with an alignment element to align the introducer with an electrode insertion site.
The invention is described in more detail below with reference to the drawings.